Opinion: Here’s how, despite soaring housing costs, people continue to live in L.A.

Southern California has always had one of the priciest real estate markets in the United States, but in recent years the gap between what people can afford to pay for rent or mortgage and median housing prices has become a gaping chasm.

Tim Logan of The Times reports about new data that reflect just how bad things have gotten for most Southern Californians:

“Nearly half of all working-age adults in Los Angeles and Orange counties live in a home with another adult who is not their spouse -- a higher percentage than any other big city in the country, according a new report by real estate website Zillow. In second place: the Inland Empire.

“Economists at Zillow crunched U.S. census numbers and found that 47.9% of adults in metro L.A. lived in “doubled-up” households in 2012, a number that has grown rapidly -- up from 41.2% in 2000 -- as the recession and yo-yo-ing housing market have pushed more people to share apartments.

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“ ‘You’ve got a lot of households that are blending together,’ said Zillow economist Skylar Olsen. ‘They’re doing that to make housing more affordable.’

Maybe eventually. For the time being, the pull of family ties, whatever work they currently have and just plain inertia is keeping hundreds of thousands of people stuck in houses and apartments they can’t really afford. Until things turn around, who knows when, they are doubling up and tripling up with friends, lovers and random people they find on Craigslist. As someone who has from time to time been forced to participate in the so-called sharing economy to make ends meet, I have nothing but sympathy for this situation.

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Having a roommate you don’t want, simply for economic reasons, violates your privacy and sense of personal calm at least as much as secret government surveillance programs that intercept your email. This goes double if, like me, you are an introvert.

For this week’s cartoon, however, I do appreciate the fact that this predicament makes for a fun sight gag. If I had the ability to add sound here, imagine all the characters either snoring or growling ominously like zombies.

There’s been an uptick in swearing among candidates for president. If it’s a strategy to attract younger and less religious voters, it may backfire partly because the profanity the candidates use may not have much impact.

Overcoming opposition from companies making high-interest loans, the state Legislature was poised to give final approval Friday to a bill to cap interest rates on installment loans between $2,500 and $10,000.